Admittedly, I’m going to act with a degree of smugness over the coming days, explaining over-and-over again to my glory-hunting friends that humble Fulham are, statistically, one of two unbeaten Premier League teams as September draws to a close.
However, those who dig deeper will be well aware that only one of the six games we’ve played so far in the Premiership, has gained us three wholesome points.
So, rather than racing into October full of enthusiasm and confidence, we’re quite literally hobbling into the Autumn term to face what could prove to be a dull few weeks.
It is, though, due to no fault of our own.
Thanks to some dirty, and frankly unnecessary tackling in some previous games (no names mentioned) we do find ourselves with a distinct lack of firepower.
Bobby Zamora shall be all but a memory for the coming months and Belgian star Moussa Dembele won’t be gracing the white shirt for a couple of weeks yet, which leaves two natural midfielders in the form of Zoltan Gera and Clint Dempsey leading the now fruitless front-line.
To be fair, I’ve always been one to believe that, given some decent service, anyone can realistically bag a few goals, yet, when you deploy midfielders up-front, you also deploy the mindset of a midfielder, up front.
We’re not going to score many goals when our strike force is more prone to crossing and passing than taking a crack at goal.
I know it’s a very simplistic view to take, but I’d have far more confidence in our ability to win if we started with a pair of natural strikers, rather than a singular midfielder as we did against Everton.
Taking into account Mark Hughes’ formation, it was almost a foregone conclusion that we’d end the game without troubling Tim Howard in the slightest.
That’s why I’m regrettably calling for Sparky to start with Eddie Johnson and Jo Kamara.
I’m well aware that EJ is nowhere near Premier League standard, but, he does offer a decent threat and his pace will always cause problems to the opposition.
Also, if Eddie Johnson does prove to be the catastrophic failure that many would expect him to be, why not capitalise on our injury situation and give some of the younger players an opportunity to impress?
The likes of Marcello Trotta and Danny Hoesen were firing in goals for fun in the development squad last season, so why not give them a run out?
After all, if Blackpool can score four goals away from home with a strike force that includes Marlon Harewood, then we can bag 6 at West Ham with Kamara up front!
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